A television camera in which a recording device is integrally incorporated comprising an image pickup device (CCD device or the like) capable of optionally setting a frame rate is conventionally available. Further, an image processing system in which the television camera and a frame rate converting device are combined with each other so that a complicated time elongation/contraction effect can be imparted to an outputted image is also conventionally available. An example of the conventional image processing system is recited in P5-P10 and FIG. 1 of No. 2000-152569 of the Publication of the Unexamined Japanese Patent Applications.
In the conventional image processing system, the time elongation/contraction effect on the image cannot be ultimately confirmed until an output of the frame rate converting device is reproduced. However, the frame rate converting device has a size and a mass unsuitable for portability and therefore cannot be brought into a photographing site. Due to the disadvantage, image data obtained by the image pickup (video tape) has to be brought into a location where the frame rate converting device is installed so that the time elongation/contraction effect can be confirmed through reproducing and converting processes implemented by the frame rate converting device. Such an inconvenience is a barrier to the reduction of a time length required for the photographing (speedier photographing).
Further, an imaging cost reduction cannot be promoted because the frame rate converting device, which is costly, is indispensable for obtaining the time elongation/contraction effect on the image.
Therefore, a main object of the present invention is to speedily and inexpensively obtain the time elongation/contraction effect on the image.